Since NASA’s Curiosity rover landed successfully on Mars last August, the one-ton, SUV-sized vehicle has been exploring the Gale Crater on the surface of Mars. In this podcast, join NASA project scientist John Grotzinger as he discusses the highlights of the Curiosity Mission to date.

New research out of the Museum today is the first to provide definitive proof that green algae eat bacteria. The finding, captured with electron microscope images, offers a glimpse at how scientists think early organisms acquired free-living chloroplasts, the structures responsible for converting light into food. This event is thought to be a critical first step in the evolution of photosynthetic algae and land plants, which helped raise oxygen levels in Earth’s atmosphere and paved the way for the rise of animals.